Jackson leads Australian charge in US

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Lauren Jackson will have a big Australian - Opals centre Suzy
Batkovic - alongside her at WNBA champion Seattle Storm this season
and, as a result, is likely to get the chance to show more of her
perimeter skills.

Jackson, just 24 and regarded as the world's best player since
she won the WNBA's MVP award the season before last, will be the
focus of Australian interest again as the league begins its ninth
season this weekend with an influx of Opals talent. Eight
Australians will be playing, including young Opals Belinda Snell
(Phoenix Mercury) and Laura Summerton (Connecticut Sun, which lost
last year's grand final to the Storm).

And there will be two coaches, 2000 Olympic Games captain
Michele Timms rejoining the Mercury as an assistant to Carrie Graf,
who is back for her second season as head coach.

Jackson said she was starting to feel good again after sitting
out the Australian season because of surgery on her ankle.

"They found more damage in there than they thought they were
going to," Jackson told a Seattle paper of the three-hour surgery
that kept her in the hospital for three days. "Luckily they did it,
because they said if I would have left it for a couple more years,
then it would have been unrepairable."

She described the rehabilitation as a "pretty tough process" but
said she was hungry to win another title, although that would not
stop her catching up with opposition Australians at home and on the
road. "It's always good to see my Aussie mates," she said.

"Obviously, the MVP award is something I would love to win
again, but at the end of the day, it's really about the
championship. It was the best thing that has ever happened to me
and I want to experience that again."

Batkovic, who has played in France for several seasons, replaces
guard Tully Bevilaqua (who has gone to Indiana Fever) as the "other
Aussie" at Seattle.

Of playing outside as well as inside, Jackson, already a strong
three-point shooter, said: "If I start to feel comfortable out
there, it's something I'd like to try."

Batkovic will be a late starter because of European finals
commitments, as will the Mercury's Penny Taylor, who plays in
Italy. Her team is in the best-of-five championship series, which
started last weekend. "We'll have her no later than the 25th (of
May)," general manager Seth Sulka said. That means Taylor will miss
the first two games.

A survey of WNBA general managers ranked Jackson as the player
they would like to build a franchise around and as the likely MVP
winner. They rated her the best foreign player and the best power
forward in the league.

Her great rival Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) is rated the
best centre and the Sparks are ranked title favourites ahead of
Seattle, largely based on LA's acquisition of forward Chamique
Holdsclaw, pairing a second MVP candidate with Leslie.

Analyst Nancy Lieberman predicts Bevilaqua's move to Indiana
will help the Tamika Catchings-led Fever. "She's a savvy veteran
with plenty of international experience who was instrumental in
Seattle's championship run," Lieberman said.

Victorian scorer Snell, one of the WNBL's stars with Sydney
Flames for several seasons, has impressed in the pre-season for
Phoenix, as has Adelaide's Summerton, considered a Rachael Sporn
clone, at Connecticut.

MISSED IT ...

Katrina Hibbert (cut by Indiana), Hollie Grima and Carly Wilson
(cut
by Sacramento) and Jess Bibby (waived because of injury by
Seattle

MAKING IT ...

In Australia, Jackson aside, these players get
little more than ``petrol
money''
In Europe, the top women earn $100,000-plus
In the US, the WNBA pays from $40,000 for
first-year players up to
about $100,000